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THE . . .
WEDDING-
SONG OF.
WISDOM. .
1
WORKS BY THE SAME
AITTHAP
J
Thrice Greatsst Hbrmes (3 vols.) - 30/-
PRAGMKNTS OP A PaxTH FORGOTTEN - I0/6
Dm jBSos Live loo B.C. ? - - - • 9/-
TsE World-Mystery ;/-
THE GOSPEI:, AND THE GOSPEW - - - 4/6
Apoiaonios OP TvANA 3/6
IHB Upanishads (2 vols.) - - - - 3/-
r%oTiNU8 1/-
1
ECHOES BY
FROM G. R. S.
THE MEAD
GNOSIS y^OL. XI.
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM
THE LONDON
THEOSOPHICAL AND
PUBLISHING BENARES
SOCIETY \SM^
V.I/
PWINT-^o ;v ,.--.-. SRirAlC
ECHOES FROM THE
GNOSIS.
Under this general title is now beil^ published
a series of small volumes, drawn from, or based
upon, the mystic, theosophic and gnostic writings
of the aacieats, so as to make more easily audible
for the ever-widening circle of thuse who love such
things, some echoes of the mystic csperienees and
initiatory lore of their spiritual ancestry. There
are many who love the life of the spirit, and who
Inng for the light of gnostic ttluniluation, hut who
are not sufficiently equipped to study the writings
of the ancients at first hand, or to follow un-
aided the labours of scholars. These little volumes
are therefore intended to -serve a;; introduction
to the study of the more difficult literature of the
subject ; and it is hoped that at the same time
tliey may become for some, who have as yet not
even heard of the Gnosis, stepping-stones to
higher things.
*•' G. R. S. M.
^^
I
ECHOES FROM THE
1
1- H.T<-10IC
1
Vol,. I.
THE GNOSIS OF THE MIND.
Voi„ II.
THE HYMNS OF HERMES.
fl
vot. in.
THE VISION OP ARID^US.
1
Vot. IV.
THE HYMN OP JESUS.
H
Vol. V.
THE MYSTERIES OP MITHRA.
1
Vol. VI.
A MITHRIAC RITUAL.
■
voi,.vn.
THE GNOSTIC CRUaPIXION.
1
Voi,.Vin.THR CHAI-DaAN ORACLES, I.
1
VOL. IX.
THE CHALDEAN ORACLES, II.
■
Vol,, X.
THE HYMN OF THE ROBE
OP GLORY.
1
VOL. XI.
THE WEDDING-SONG OF
WISDOM
1
1
THE WEDDING-SONG OF
WISDOM.
CONTENTS,
rAsc
Prbamblk 9
Translations ig
From the Greek Version . . . . . . 19
From the Catholicized Syriac Text , , . . aa
From the Later Armenian Version . . . . 26
Comments a?
Syrian Wedding Festivities . ■ . . . . 17
The Song of Songs . . , . ■ • . . 18
The Sacred Marriage in the Kabalah . . 3a
In the Writings of Fhilo Judaeiu .. , , jf
In the New Testament 46
Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . • ■ 51
The Sacred Marriage in Christian Gnosticism 67
In the Trismegistic Gnosis .. .. ..78
Id the Chaldxan Oracles .. .. ..80
In the Mithriac Mysteries . . . . . . 84
The Seven . . , . , , , . . . 88
The Choir of the Moat 94
NOTBB 96
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Thilo (J. C), Acta S. Thoma Apostelt (Leipeig, 1823).
Wright (W). Apocryphal Ads 0/ the Aposlla (London,
1871), ii. 150-153.
Noldecke (T.), Rev. of Wright, Ziihchfifi ier dtutschen
mot^entAndischtit Gtseitscka/t (1871), pp 670 ff.
Macke (K), " SyriscJie Lieder gnostischen Ursprungs.
Eine Studio iiber die apocryphen syrischen
Thom asacte n , " Tkeokgische Qua rSatsch rift (Tubin-
gen. 1874), pp. 1 ff.
Lipsius (R. A). Die apocryphm Apoitdgischkhten «,
AposltUegeadtn (Brunswick, 1883, 1884), i. pp.
301 ff.
Bonnet (M.), Acta Aptistokrvm Apocrypha (edd, Lipsiu*
et Bonnet), vol. ii., pt. ii. (Leipzig, igoj).
Hoffmann (G.), " Zwei Hyranen der Thoraasakten,"
Zcitsekrifl Jiir die ntuiisiammtUchs Wineitschaft
(Giessen, 1903), vol. iv. pp. 395 — 309.
Preuschen (E.), Zwti gneitiickt Hymnm (Giessen,
1904).
Burkitt (F. C), Review of Preuschen, Tkmlogisch
Tijdschrifi (Amsterdam), May, rgos, pp, syo— 282.
F. — Mead (G. R. S). FtagmuKti of a Faith FofgoittH
(and. ed., London, 1906).
H. = Mead (G. R. S.), TkfUt Gttattst Htma
(London, igo6).
THE WEDDING-SONG
OF WISDOM.
PREAMBLE.
The Hymn which forms the subject of
this little volume has no traditional title.
Like The Hymn of the Robe of Glory,
which foiTTied the last of these Echoes,
it is found in the Syriac Acis of Judas
Thomas, where it is put in the mouth of
the Apostle who is said, on his travels, to
have been guest of honour at a bridal
feast.
In addition to the Syriac we have a
Greek text which is plainly a translation.
The Greek is in prose, but the Syriac for
the most part in verses of twelve syllables,
in couplets, "just like The Hymn of the
Robe 'of Glory. As Macke tells us (p. 17),
where the Greek and Syriac agree the
THE
WEDDING-
SOKG OF
WISDOM.
verses are oi six syllables ; or more
correctly, as Burkitt has pointed out
(p. 277), normally 6 + 6, but sometimes
5+7- Moreover, the Greek can be trans-
lated back into metred Syriac where
the present Syriac departs from the
metre.
An Armenian version also existed, of
which, unfortunately, we now possess
only the opening and closing lines.
All scholars agree that the original
Hymn was composed in SjTiac ; but is
our Syriac text as it stands the original ?
It plainly is not ; it has been " over-
worked," as the Germans call it, by an
editor, and that too, to serve certain
theological interests, while the scraps of
the Armenian version show that it in its
turn had been still further over-worked.
The first thing that strikes the careful
reader is that where the Greek differs
most widely from the Syriac, there the
Syriac has been " over-worked," for it
is precisely in such places that the metre
is broken, It is again precisely in these
10
passages that the Greek is strongly
Gnostic, while the Syriac is as strongly
Catholic.
It is thereiore to be concluded, with
all reasonable certainty, that the Greek
preserves the original Syriac more closely,
and that this original Syriac was the
composition of a Gnostic poet.
As to this, there has been an unbroken
consensus of opinion from Thilo {Ada
Tkomce, p. 121 ff.) onwards ; but lately
{1905), Professor Burkitt has put forward
another view. He first of all remarks
(p. 270), that the contents and styles of
the two Hymns, the Bridal Song and the
Hymn of the Robe, are so different that
they must be treated entirely apart from
one another ; and with this I am quite
disposed to agree. Dr. Burkitt, however,
goes on to say (p. 278} : " I venture to
think that the Bridal Ode is an integral
part of the Acts of Thomas, and that it
was composed for the very position which
it now occupies," and further to contend
that it is not a Gnostic Hymn, but quite
II
TH£
WEDDINC
SONG OF
WISDOM. (
iONG OF
WISDOM.
in keeping with the early " orthodoxy
of the Syriac Church.
Professor Burkitt would himself admit
that his belief (p. 282), that the " theo-
logy of the Hymn would pass as orthodox
when judged by the standard of the
early Syriac-speaking Church," is difficult
of proof, uidess we allow that that
" orthodoxy " is referable to a time
when " Gnostic " and " Catholic " were
still intermingled.
His main contention is that " Gnos-
ticism" is "intellectual" and not "moral,"
and that the whole atmosphere of the
Thomas-Acts is the latter and not the
former. Preuschen strongly argues the
contrary, and shows that the main pre-
occupation of the Gnostics was the
scheme of moral salvation and not an
intellectual science, and with this I fully
agree ; for the whole of the Gnosis
appears to me to have been of the nature
of a vital realization mystically conceived,
operated chiefly by a moral * conversion
or regeneration, and not a rational system
IS
of knowledge of the nature of a science ; ™^_,f„-,
and I do not see how the Gnosis can song of
possibly be understood on any but the WISDOM,
former hypothesis.
Among the apocryphal religious ro-
mances The Acts of Thomas have ^^
hitherto been regarded as strongly tine- ^H
tured with Gnosticism. The Ads of ^H
Thomas were, I hold, originally Gnostic ; H
but have since passed through the hands H
of Cathohc editors. The general state ^H
of afifairs concerning the Gnostic Acts- ^|
romances may be seen in the Preamble ^H
to Vol. IV. of these httle books, The ^|
Hymn of Jesus ; and I will here requote ^H
what Lipsius, whose authority on the ^|
subject is great, has said : ^H
" Almost every fresh editor of such ^H
narratives, using that freedom which aU ^H
antiquity was wont to allow itself in dealing ]
with Uterary monuments, would recast ^J
the materials which lay before him, ^|
excluding whatever might not suit his ^|
theological point of view — dogmatic ^|
statements, for example, speeches, ^M
LB 13 ^M
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
prayers [hymns we might add], etc., for
which he would substitute other formulje
of his own composition, and further
expanding and abridging after his own
pleasure, or as the immediate object
which he had in view might dictate. . .
" Cathohc bishops and teachers knew
not how better to stem this flood of
Gnostic writings and their influence
among the faithful, than by boldly
adopting the most popular narratives from
the heretical books, and, after carefully
eliminating the poison of false doctrine,
replacing them in this purified form in
the hands of the public."
With the general criticism of the extant
forms of the text of The Acts of Thomas
we caimot concern ourselves in this little
treatise, but as against Professor Burkitt's
view of our Hymn — which he himself has
characterised as " rather extreme " — I
venture to associate myself with the
otherwise unanimous body of learned
opinion, that the Hymn was originally
Irom the pen of a Gnostic poet. Not
14
only 90, but it may be contended that J^^niwc.
the whole of the Ada ThomcB were origin- song OF
ally Gnostic. Did the original compiler, wisdom.
then, write the Hymn, or did he incorporate
it from some other source ? I am inclined
to adopt the latter hypothesis, though
I grant it is open to objection. But in
any case, according to what has been
said above, it was originally Gnostic
rather than what subsequently became
Catholic, and some later Catholic hand
has " carefully eliminated " from the
original Syriac " the poison of false
doctrine," — to quote the phrase of Lipsius
which I have itahcized— while the Greek
translator has more or less faithfully
followed his original. When, for instance,
we find such a phrase as " the Son's
Twelve Apostles " {p. 14), we agree
with Macke (p. 9), that: "Z)er alte
gnostiscke Text isi katholisch iiherar-
bcitd " (The original Gnostic text has
been worked over in a Catholic sense).
In brief, the later Syrian redactor has
" cooked " the text to suit his orthodoxy ;
15
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OP
WISDOM.
whereas the Greek translator, though
not very skilful, is trustworthy (see
Preuschen, p. 8). The Greek form is
nearest the original ; still it is not pure,
for it has additions and exclusions, while
in places it is somewhat paraphrastic
{ibid. p. 28).
If then the Hymn was incorporated by
the Syrian compiler of the Acts from
some other source, was it taken over just
as it stood ? That is to say. Was it
originally composed as a Gnostic Hymn ?
I think it was ; and if it be suggested,
as it has been by early critical opinion,
that it was originally a profane Syrian
Bridal Ode, and that it was subsequently
Gnosticized, this two-stage hypothesis
seems unnecessary if we admit, with
Preuschen (pp. 7 and 29), the simpler
probability that it was built on the model
of similar Syrian wedding-songs and
customs, even as they obtain to-day,
during the seven days festivities, when the
bride and bridegroom are represented
as a royal couple.
16
And now what shall we call our Ode,
for it has no title ? On the whole I think
that " Tlie Wedding-Song of Wisdom "
is a good description, if we take " of
Wisdom " to signify " in praise of Wis-
dom," where Wisdom stands for the
Gnostic Sophia, the purified human soul,
awaiting the coming of her Divine Spouse
and Complement the Christ. That this
is a legitimate title may be seen from
the Hymn itself, which in the Greek ends
with the couplet ;
" So with the Living Spirit they sang
praise and hymn unto Truth's Father
and to Wisdom's Mother."
This plainly stood in the lost Syriac
original, for which in the present text
the redactor or over-worker has sub-
stituted an orthodox doxology from some
liturgy, beginning :
" Praise ye the Father, the Lord."
As to the contents and style of this
Song, it must be confessed that we have
to do with a poem of far less originahty
than the Hymn of the Robe of Glory, and
THE)
WEDDING
SONG OF
WISDOl
WEDDING-
SONG OF
SDOM.
I have taken it as a subject not so
much for its intrinsic merits, as because
it affords an opportunity to set forth
some information on that great mystery
which was in antiquity generally known
as the Sacred Marriage.
With these brief introductory remarks
the reader may perhaps approach the
perusal of the translation of the Greek,
Syriac and Armenian with greater under-
standing. For the Syriac I have com-
pared aU the existing versions, and for
the Armenian fragments I have translated
from the German the version printed
by Preuschen,
18
TRANSLATIONS.
FROM THE GREEK VERSION,
Tke Maiden is Lighi's Daughter ;
On her the Kings' Radiance resteth.
Stately her Look and delightsome.
With radiant beauty forth-shining.
Like unto spring-flowers are her Garments,
From them streameth scent of sweet odour.
On the Crown of her Head the King
throneth,
[With Living Food] feeding those 'neath
Him.
Truth on her Head doth repose,
She sendeth forth Joy from her Feet.
19
10
Her Mouth is opened, and meetly ;
Two-and-thirty are they who sing praises.
*
*
*
*
15 Her Tongue is like the Door-hanging
Set in motion by those who enter.
Step-wise her Neck risetk — a Stairway
The first of all Builders hath builded.
The Two Palms of her Hands
20 Suggest the Choir of the Mons.
Her Fingers are secretly setting
The Gates of the City ajar.
Her Bridechamber shineth with Light,
Forth-pouring scent of balsam and sweet-
herbs,
25 Exhaling the sweet perfume both of myrrh
and savoury plants,
And crowds of scented flowers.
30
Inside 'tis strewn with myrtle-boughs ;
Its Folding-doors are beautified with reeds.
Her Bridesmen are grouped round her, 30
Seven in number, whom she hath invited.
Her Bridesmaids, too, are Seven,
Who lead the Dance before her.
And Twelve are her Servants before her.
Their gaze looking out for the Bridegroom ; 35
That at His sight they may be filled with
Light.
A nd then for ever more shall they be with Him
In that eternal everlasting Joy ;
And share in that eternal Wedding-feast,
A t which the Great Ones [«//] assemble ; 4^
A nd so abide in thai Delight
Of which the Ever-living are deemed worthy.
With Kingly Clothes shall they be clad,
Ind put on Robes of Light.
21
45 -^w^ both shall be in Joy and Extdiation
and praise the Father of the Wholes,
Whose Light magnificent they have received.
For at their Master*s sight they were now
filled with Light ;
They tasted of His Living Food
That hath no waste at all,
50 And drank of that [eternal] Wine
That causes thirst and longing never more.
[So] with the Living Spirit they sang
praise and hymn
Unto Truth's Father and to Wisdom's
Mother
FROM THE CATHOLICIZED
SYRIAC TEXT.
My Bride is a Daughter of Light ;
Of the Kings' she possesseth the Splendour.
Stately and charming her Aspect,
Fair, with pure beauty adorned.
23
H Her Robes are like unio blossoms, 5 1
H Whose scent is fragrant and pleasant. ^
H On the Crown of her Head the King throneih, ■
H Giving Food to her Pillars beneath Hint. ^^H
I She seiteth Truth on her Head, ■
H Joy eddieth forth from her Feet. 10 1
H Her Mouth is open — and well doth it suit fl
H her — ^^H
H For'she singeth with it loud praises. ^^H
V /ft her the Son's Twelve Apostles ^^H
H And the Seventy-two are all-thunderous. ^^H
H Her Tongue's the Hanging of the Door, 15 1
H The Priest uplifts and enters. I
H A Stairway is her Neck ^^B
■ Thai the first Builder hath builded. ^H
H The Palms of her Hands, furthermore, ^i^B
H Predict the Land of the Living. 20 ^B
^^h m
^^^^^^^^^^^f
25
And of her fingers the Decad
Set for her open the Heaven's Door.
Her Bridal Chamber^ a-light,
And filled with the scent of Salvation.
Incense is set in her Midst, of Love,
and of Faith,
And of Hope, and tnaking all scented.
Within is Truth strewn ;
Its Doors with Verity are decked.
30 Her Bridesmen surround her,
All, whom she hath invited.
And her Bridesmaids, grouped with them.
Are singing the Praise-hymn before her.
Before her there serve Living Ones,
3S And watch for the Bridegroom's coming.
That by His Radiance they may be filled
with Light,
24
And with hitn enter tn His Kingdom^
That never more shall pass away.
And go unto that Feast
Where all ike Righteous shall assemble ; 40
And so attain to that Delight
Wherein they each and all shall enter.
Thereon they clotfie themselves in Robes of
Light, I
And are wrapped in the Radiance of their
Lord,
And to the Living Father praises sing, 45
In that they have received the Light mag-
nificent,
And by their Lord's Resplendence are made
Light,
And they have tasted of His Living Food
That never more hath waste.
And of the Living [Water] they have drunk.
That suffers them to pant and thirst no more.
25
Praise ye tht Father, the Lord,
And {praise ye] the Son Sok-begoUen,
And thanks give unto the Spirit
As [thanks giving] unto His Wisdom.
FROM THE LATER ARMENIAN VERSION.
TWO FRAGMENTS.
Great is the Lighfs Daughter, the Church ;
She is the Desire of thy Kings, longed f^r
and happy.
*
*
*
*
We shall go to the Heavenly Marriage
And drink the Wine that makes gladsome ;
We shall Ithenl be with Him for ever,
From the Bounds of the East bearing
witness.
The Scribe has unfortunately copied
only the first and last lines, and omitted
the whole body of the Hymn.
26
COMMENTS.
SYRIAN WEDDING-FESTIVITIES.
The picture that the Hymn conjures ^™™c.
up before our eyes is entirely in keeping song of
with the Syrian marriage customs ob- wisdom,
served among the peasants even to the
present day. Cheyne, in his article on
" Canticles," in the Encyclopedia Biblica,
smnmarizes from Wetzstein's instructive
account (" D. syr. Dreschtafel," in Bas-
tian's Z(. fiir Ethnologie (1873), pp. 287-
294) of the customs of the Syrian peasants
in the month of weddings (March).
" During the seven days after a wedding
high festivity, with scarcely interrupted
singing and dancing, prevails. The bride-
groom and the bride play the parts of
king and queen (hence the week is called
the ' king's week '), and receive the
37
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
homage of their neighbours ; the crown,
however, is ... . confined to the
bride. The bridegroom has his train of
' companions.' .... The bride, too,
has her friends, the maidens of the place,
who take an important part in the re-
ception of the bridegroom."
Before the wedding a song called waif
{i.e., " laudatory description ") is sung
in honour of the bride. Other songs are
also sung before 'and after the wedding.
THE SONG OF SONGS,
The most famous ancient collection
of such songs is The Song of Songs {Shir
ha-Shinm), which the most recent research
(see Cheyne, ibid.), characterizes as " an
anthology of songs used at marriage
festivals in or near Jerusalem, revised
and loosely connected by an editor
without regard to temporal sequence."
Hirsch and Toy's article " Song of Songs,"
in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, gives the
date of compilation as probably in the
penod 200-100 B.C., but it of course the
*^ . . . . • 1 WEDDING-
contams more ancient matenal. song OF
The following lines from a wasf in this WISOOlb
collection, in their Revised Version, may
with advantage be compared with our
Ode:
" How beautiful are thy feet in sandals,
O prince's daughter !
Thy rounded thighs are Hke jewels,
fThe work of the hands of a cunning
workman.
Tl
Thy neck is like the tower of ivory ;
Thine head upon thee is like Carmel,
And the hair of thine head like purple ;
The king is held captive in the tresses
thereof."
C 29
WFnniHr ^^ might almost be persuaded that
SONG OF * these very lines were in the mind of our
WISDOM. Gnostic poet when he wrote his Ode ;
but as the wasf was invariably in praise
of the personal attractions of the bride,
describing her charms with the intimacy
of unabashed realism, such songs must
have been very similar to one another,
and must have become in time quite
conventionalized. We need not, there-
fore, in seeking for the prototype of oiir
Ode, be sure we have found it in this
particular wasf of the Song of Songs
collection.
Though these songs were originally secu-
lar, once they were collected as "scripture,"
and doubtlessly " over- written " in the
interests of religion, they were regarded
as portraying the phases of spiritual and
not earthly love. They were thus made
susceptible of an allegorical interpretation,
and perhaps such interpretations were
attempted almost as soon as they were
thus coDected, indeed the very collection
of them may have been fof this very
30
purpose. They were then regarded as IJ^jj-.-
setting forth the Love of Yahweh and His SOHG OF
people, Israel. Of any such interpre- WISDOM.
tations prior to the Christian era we
have no definite knowledge, but similar
interpretations were general enough among
the Jewish mystics in the days of Philo
(B.C. 30 — A.D. 40), and must have been
attempted long before his time, as we are
justified in concluding from his statements
about the allegorizing art of the Thera-
peuts. Both Midrash and Targum
prove conclusively that the oldest inter-
pretation of The Song of Songs was
allegorical. It, therefore, follows that
the allied schools of the Christianized
Gnosis must have as fully dehghted in
allegorizing Caniides, and not only so,
but have created new songs the better to
express the innermost meaning of the
great mystery of the Sacred Marriage,
which was one of their chief est sacraments.
Later on this allegorizing passed into the
Cathohc Church. As The Jewish En-
cyclopedia article says : " The allegorical
31
™E| conception of it passed over into the
SONG OF " Christian Church, and has been elaborated
WISDOM, by a long line of workers from Origen
down to the present time, the deeper
meaning being assumed to be the relation
between God or Jesus [the Christ rather]
and the Church or the individual soul."
Whether or not The Song of Songs
collection was originally intended to be
allegorized, it is quite evident that our
Ode was composed chiefly for this purpose •
indeed, for the most part it interprets
itself in technical Gnostic terms,
THE SACRED MARRIAGE IN
THE KABALAH.
From the Talmud we know that R.
Shimeon, son of Gamaliel, the teacher of
Paul, interpreted The Song of Songs
allegorically. R, Shimeon was one of
the Tannaim of the " first generation,"
and flourished about the first quarter of
the second century a.d, (See H. L. Strack,
Einleitung in den Thalmud — Leipzig,
1900 — p. 78).
33
It is not possible here to discuss the date HJ£,-„„-
and sources of the Zoharic documents song of
which form the main corpus of the extant WISDOM
Kabalah (The Tradition par excellence,
according to the Jewish mystics) ; it is
enough to say that these documents
contain ancient material and traditions,
which find their nearest relatives in the
remains of the Jewish and Christian
Gnosis. It will be suificient for our
present purpose to set down a passage
from Jean de Pauly's recent French
translation of the Sepher-ha-Zohar or
Book of Splendour, the first complete
translation which has ever appeared,
and is now being published by the
devotion of M. Emile Lafuma-Giraud
(Paris, 1906, in progress). This passage
purports to preserve the tradition of R.
Shimeon's views on the Sacred Marriage,
and runs as foUows (i. 43 ff., Zohar, i, 8a) ;
" Rabbi Shimeon consecrated to the
study of the mystic doctrine the whole
night on which the Heavenly Bride is
united with her Heavenly Spouse."
33
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
This is said to have been the eve of
the Feast of Pentecost, the day when the
Law {Torah) was revealed to the IsraeUtes,
and the Covenant (regarded as a marriage
contract) contracted between Yahweh
and His people,
" For, as it has been taught, all the
Members of the Palace of the Heavenly
Bride should spend the whole night with
her, and on the morrow lead her beneath
the wedding canopy, beside her Spouse,
and rejoice with her. They should con-
secrate the eve of the HeaverJy Marriage
to the study of the Law, the Prophets
and the Sacred Writings, to the inter-
pretation of the verses and to the
mysteries ; for the esoteric science {i.e.,
gnosis] is as it were the jewels of tl^^
Heavenly Bride. 1^
" She and her young maidens, who
surround her, rejoice the whole night ;
and on the morrow she goes beneath the
wedding canopy surrounded by them,
who are rightly called the ' guests ' [lit. the
invited] of the marriage.' ~
34
"The moment the Bride steps under
the canopy, the Holy One (Blessed be
He !) salutes the companions of the
Bride, blesses them, and adorns them
with crowns [or wreaths] woven by the
Bride ; happy the lot of the Brides-
maids !
" During the night when the Heavenly
Marriage was being consummated, Rabbi
Shimeon and his companions chanted
hymns and uttered sayings containing
new ideas about the mystic doctrine
[the gnosis].
" Therefore, addressing his companions.
Rabbi Shimeon exclaimed : ' My sons,
happy is yoiir lot, for to-morrow the
Heavenly Spouse will go beneath the
canopy accompanied by you only, because
you have rejoiced with her on tht eve
of the Marriage [or Union]. Ye aU shall
have your names written in the Heavenly
Book ; and the Holy One (Blessed be
He !) will overwhelm you with sixty
and six blessings, and adorn you with
crowns of the world above."
35
THE
WEDDING
SONG OF
WISDOt
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
ISDOM.
On this there follows a further inter-
pretation ; but enough has been said to
indicate to the reader the striking
similarities between the tradition of
R, Shimeon b. Gamahel and the matter
of our Ode. With the writing of the name
in the Book of Life may be compared
The Hymn of the Robe of Glory (I. 47) ;
" When thy Name is read in the Book of
the Heroes," and the note upon it (p. 87).
The number 66, is the double of 33,
the full number of «ons in the Christian
Gnostic Pleroma or Fulness. The num-
ber of the Kabahstic Ways in the Sepher
Yetzira, the oldest extant Kabahstic
treatise (? Vllth—XIth centuries), is 32.
This Book of Perfecting {see E. Bischoff,
Die Kabbalah : Einfuhrung in die
jUdische Mystik and Geheimwissenschaft —
Leipzig, 1903 — pp. 8 and 10) is based upon
the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as
the 22 " elements " of all things, and the
10 numbers of the decad (Sephiroth), as
categories of aU Being. These are all
summed up in one absolute Unity, 33 in
36
all. Perhaps this may throw light on 1. ™^_.„_
12 of our Ode (Greek text) : SCWG OF
" Two-and-thirty are they who sing WISDOJ
praises."
IN THE WRITU^GS OF PHILO JUDjEUS,
But already a century before Rabbi
Shimeon, Philo of Alexandria was filled
with the idea of the Mystic Union or
Sacred Marriage ; it was the favourite
doctrine of his circle and of similar circles
of allied mystics of the time. I have
already at length {H. i. 216-224) set forth
his doctrines on the subject, with full
references to his works, and must here
be content with a few quotations only,
which embody the doctrine, apart from
the scriptural references which he would
have us take as the foundation on
which the doctrine is built ; whereas it is
quite evident that the doctrines were
shared in by many who had no knowledge
of the Covenant-documents, and that it
is PhUo himself who accommodates the
scripture of his race to the doctrines.
37
THE Philo writes :
WEDDING-
SONG OF
ISDOM, " But it is not lawful for Virtues, in
giving birth to their many perfections,
to have part or lot in a mortal husband.
And yet they will never bring forth of
themselves without conceiving their ofE-
spring of another."
" Who, then, is He who soweth in
them their glorious progeny, if not the
Father of Wholes— the God beyond all
genesis, who yet is Sire of everything
that is ? For, for Himself, God doth
create no single thing, in that He stands
in need of naught ; but for the man who
prays to have them He creates all things."
And again :
" God is both Home, the incorporeal
Land of incorporeal ideas, and Father of
all things, in that He did create them,
and Husband of Wisdom, sowing for the
race of mankind the seed of blessedness
into good virgin soil.
38
" For it is fitting God should converse J^^-™,-
with an undefiled, an untouched and pure song of
nature, vnth her who is in very truth wiSDOa
ths Virgin, in fashion very different from
ours.
" For the congress of men for the
procreation of children makes virgins
wives. But when God begins to asso-
ciate \vith the soul, He brings it to pass
that she who was formerly wife becomes
virgin again. For banishing the foreign
and degenerate and non-virile desires,
by which it was made womanish, He
substitutes for them native and noble
and pure virtues. . . .
" Wherefore is it not fitting that God,
who is beyond all genesis and aU change,
should sow in us the ideal seeds of the
immortal ^-irgin virtues, and not those
of the woman who changes the form of
her virginity ? "
Thus, speaking of the impure soul,
PhUo writes ;
39
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" For when she is a multitude of
passions and fiUed with vices, her
children swarming over her — pleasures,
appetites, folly, intemperance, unright-
eousness, injustice— she is weak and sick,
and lies at death's door, dying ; but
when she becomes sterile, and ceases to
bring them forth, or even casts them from
her, forthwith, from the change, she
becometh a chaste virgin, and receiving
the Divine Seeds she fashions and en-
genders marvellous excellencies that
nature prizeth highly — ^prudence, courage,
temperance, justice, holiness, piety, and
the rest of the virtues and good dis-
positions."
So also speaking of the Therapeutrides,
the women-disciples of the Therapeut
communities, he writes :
" Their longing is not for mortal
children, but for a deathless progeny,
which the soul that is in love with God
can alone bring forth, when the Father
4«>
hath sown into it the spiritual Light- SSt!v,Kf.
beams, by means of which it shall be able song of
to contemplate the laws of Wisdom." WISDOM.
And a little later he adds :
" And Wisdom, who, after the fashion
of a mother, brings forth the self-taught
Race, declares that God is the Sower of it."
And yet again, speaking of this spiritual
progeny, he writes ;
" But all the Servants of God {Thera-
peuts) who are lawfully begotten, shall
fulhl the law of their nature, which
commands them to be parents. For
the men shall be fathers of many sons,
and the women mothers of many children."
They shall be true Godfathers and
Godmothers.
Still contemplating the mystery, though
from another standpoint, he writes :
41
WADING " ^*"^ some Wisdom judges entirely
SONG OF " worthy of living with her, while others
WISDOM, seem as yet too young to support such
admirable and wise house-sharing ; these
latter she hath permitted to solemniz*
the preliminary initiatory rites of Mar-
riage, holding out hopes of its future
consummation."
But, indeed, Philo is never weary of
descanting on what he evidently regarded
as the highest consummation of the holjr
life, the raison d'etre of which he sets
forth as follows :
" We should, accordingly, understand
that the True Reason [logos = Aiman in
Sanskrit] of nature has the potency
of both father and husband for different
purposes — of a husband, when He casts
the seed of virtues into the soul as into
a good field ; of a father, in that it is His
nature to beget good counsels, and fair
and virtuous deeds, and when He hath
begotten them. He nourisheth them with
42
those refreshing doctrines which Dis-
cipline and Wisdom furnish.
" And the Intelligence [Buddhi
Sanskrit] is hkened at one time to a
virgin, at another to a wife, or a widow,
or one who has not yet a husband.
" It is likened to a virgin, when the
Intelligence keeps itself chaste and un-
corrupted from pleasures and appetites,
and griefs and fears, the passions which
assault it ; and then the Father who
begot it, assumes the leadership thereof.
" And when she (Intelligence) hves as
a comely wife with comely Reason {Logos),
that is with virtuous Reason, this self-
same Reason Himself undertakes the
care of her, sowing, like a husband, the
most excellent concepts in her.
" But whenever the soul is bereft of
her children of prudence, and her Marriage
with Right Reason, widowed of her most
fair possessions, and left desolate of
wisdom, through choosing a blame-
worthy life— then, let her suffer the pains
she hath decreed against herself, with no
43
THE
WIODII
SONG OF
in WISDOM.
wmnfMf Wise Reason to play physician to her
SONG OF transgressions, either as husband and
WISDOM, consort, or as father and begetter."
As examples o£ Philo's allegorizing
art we may append two instances. Refer-
ring to Jacob's dream of the white and
spotted and otherwise marked kine, Philo
insists that it must be taken allegorically.
The first class of souls, he says, are
" white."
" The meaning is that when the Soul
receives the Divine Seed, the first-born
births are spotlessly white, Uke unto
Ught of utmost purity, to radiance of the
greatest brilliance, as though it were the
shadowless ray of the sun's beams from
a cloudless sky at noon."
Even the realistic primitive-culture
story of Tamar does not dismay him, for
he writes :
" For being a widow she was com-
manded to sit in the House of the Father,
44
the Saviour ; for whose sake for ever ^(Kjqjj.
abaadoning the congress and association song of"
with mortal things^ she is bereft and wisdom.
widowed of all human pleasures, and
eceives the Divine quickening, and, full-
'filled with the Seeds of Virtue, conceives
and is in travail with fair deeds. And
when she brings them forth, she carries
off the trophies from her adversaries,
and is inscribed as Victor, receiving as
a symbol the palm of victory."
Every stage of this Divine conception
or self-regeneration is but a shadow of the
mystery of cosmic creation, which Philo
sums up as follows :
" We shall . . . . be quite
correct in saying that the Maker who
made all this universe, is also at the same
time Father of what has been brought
into existence ; while its Mother is the
Wisdom of Him who hath made it — with
whom God united, though not as man
with woman, and implanted the power
E» 45
w^DiNP °^ Genesis, And she, receiving the Seed
SONG OF " *^* ^od, brought forth with perfect labour
WISDOM. His only beloved Son whom all may
perceive — this cosmos."
Did Philo in all this write aU he knew ;
or is he raising one veil of the mystery-
only ? Virtue is most admirable, the
very foundation of the whole building,
but virtues are also powers, and regenera-
tion spells actual re-birth and per-
fectioning on aU planes, and in all states.
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Before giving some indications of how
the Gnostics regarded the mystery of the
Sacred Marriage, we may set down a
summary of what Paterson has to say
from an orthodox Biblical standpoint, on
" Marriage as a Symbol of Spiritual
Truths," in his article in Hastings' Diction-
ary of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1900), whence
aU the references can be obtained.
The germ of the idea has been traced
46
by Robertson Smith to Semitic " heathen-
ism" where the God was regarded as
the husband of the motherland.
After Hosea it became a commonplace
of prophecy that Yahweh was to Israel as
a Bridegroom and Israel to Yahweh as a
Bride, This conception passed over into
Christianity with modifications — the
Bridegroom being now God in Christ,
and the Bride the Church, the spiritual
Israel chosen out of every nation.
" How large a portion of the body ol
Christian doctrine may be set forth, and
with the sanction of Scripture, under the
category of the marriage relation, may
be briefly indicated :
" (i) Under the doctrine of God this
representation .... lays special
stress on the attributes of clemency and
long-suffering, while it safeguards the
holiness of God by showing Him grieved
and provoked to anger by contumacy
and unfaithfulness. [This is a very human
point of view. — G.R.S.M.]. As husband
God also provides for his people.
47
THH
WEDDDIG-
SOHG OF
WISDOM.
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" (2) The doctrine of sin is, from this
point of view, characterized as adultery —
a designation which, as regards (a) the
fiature of sin, indicates that its essence
consists in indifference or even hatred
towards God, and the giving of the affec-
tions towards other objects ; {b) the
heinousness of sin draws attention to its
aggravation as unfaithfulness to solemn
obligations and ingratitude for high fa-
vours ; and (c) the punishment of sin
teaches that persist ance in it entails a
casting-off, of which human divorce is a
pale emblem."
The Jewish mystics had manifestly
reached a higher ided in Philo's time,
and the Christian Gnostics followed on
them.
" (3) In the Christological doctrine the
points which are chiefly emphasized by
the conception are the love of Christ,
His kingly office as exercised in His head-
ship over the Church, and His intimate
union with it through the indweUing
spirit."
48
The key-passages are /. Cor. xi. 2 : H^jr,,,—
SONG OF
" For I am jealous over you with a WISDOii,
jealousy of God : for I espoused you to one
husband, that I might present you as a
pare virgin to Christ."
And the Letter to the Ephesians, v. 23-32 :
" For the husband is the head of the
wife, as Christ also is the Head of the
Church, being Himself the Saviour of the
Body. . , . Even as Christ also loved
the Church, and gave Himself up for it ;
that he might sanctify it, having cleansed
it with the Laver of Water by the Word,
that He might present the Church to
Himself a glorious [Bride] not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but
that she should be holy and without
blemish This mystery is
great : but I speak in regard of Christ
and the Church."
The last words seem to mean that Paul,
49
THE
WEDDTNG-
SONG OP
WISDOM.
or (if it be preferred) whoever wrote the
Letter, knew that the above was one
interpretation only, and that there was
another and more intimate revelation of
the mystery, when the individual Soul
gathered together the Church, or Assembly,
of its scattered Members or Powers, as
in the Osiric Mystery.
But to return to Pata-son's by no
means inspiring and clumsily worded ex-
position ;
" (4) In close relation to the last, the
doctrine of the Church is elucidated and
enriched by the assertion of its mystical
union with and dependence upon Christ,
and of its essential note of sanctity —
the latter, which includes aU the graces
included in sanctification, being beauti-
fully portrayed as the bridal adornment.
" (5) Finally, as regards eschatology,
the figure concentrates attention on the
momentous event of the Second Coming,
which is sudden as the coming of the
bridegroom, and places in a clear light
50
the bliss, the security, and unutterable S^^™
glory of the everlasting kingdom." song op
WISDOM
It can hardly be said that the writer _
has made it clear that he regards the
mystery, which Paul caUs "great," as
veiling an intense and immediate meaning
independent of the Church as orthodoxly
understood. The terms " symbol " and
" figure " are clearly used rhetorically
and not raysttcally, as it were things
we have now outgrown. But to the
mystic it is all far otherwise ; the Second
Coming is an eternal fact, perpetually
happening ; the Union is of Uke nature.
But before we can understand the
Gnostic point of view some indications
of the nature of Wisdom as the World-
Soul and individual soul must be at-
tempted.
WISDOM,
In all the ancient great religions the
Power whereby the God brought Himself
51
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
into manifestation was regarded as His
Divine Spouse ; and so it is even to-day
in Indian theosophy, every God has his
Shakti or Power, every Deva his Devi.
This was apparently (apart from Judaism)
a common feature in all the ancient
Semitic traditions, as may be seen in
the Phoenician cosmogony preserved in
the Histories of Philo Bybhus {H. i. 122 if.).
In Babylonian cosmogony the Spouse
of the Supreme was Wisdom. Wisdom
dwelt in the Depths of the Great Sea
with Ea the Creative Deity. Ea is the
Bel-nimequi, the Lord of Unfathomable
Wisdom ; emequ = ta be deep, and to be
wise. The Deep or Depth is, therefore,
sjTnbol of Unfathomable Wisdom ; com-
pare Apsii=Waterdeep and House of
Wisdom. (See Hehn, p. 2, in the work
referred to later on, p. 88).
The post-exilic scriptures of the Hebrews
(and pre-exilic for a matter of that) were
strongly tinctured with Babylonian ideas,
and a Wisdom-literature was gradually
developed which later on became strongly
53
influenced by the " philosophizing " of
Hellas. This Hokmah-literature (for
references see Kohler's art. " Wisdom "
in The Jewish Encyclopedia) was partly
included in the later canon, but the major
part of it, of which large portions have
been lost, was apocryphal.
In the now canonical literature Wisdom
was regarded as " the all-encompassing
Intelligence of God, the Helper of the
Creator, the Foundation of the World.
" In exact proportion as Israel's God
was believed to be the God of the universe,
Wisdom was regarded as the Cosmic
Power, God's Master-Workman pit.
Master-Workwoman] and His Designer,
while at the same time Wisdom became
the law of life and the Divine guide and
ruler of man. . . .
" Under the influence of Greek philo-
sophy Wisdom became a divine agency
of a personal character, so that Philo
terms it . . . the Mother of the
Creative Word. . . .
" In Christian and Gentile Gnosticism
53
THE
WEDDiNI
SONG OF
WISDOM.
[^
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
Wisdom
lation."
became the centre of specu-
In the last sentence we would reverse
the order, the doctrines were Gentile first
of all and were later Christianized,
The orthodox Jews, with their fanaticism
for the exclusive masculine, regarded
Wisdom as a Constructive Formative
Energy. The Gnostics regarded Her as a
Conceptive, all-encompassing Power, that
received and brought forth the Ideas of
the Divine Mind, and manifested the
Divine Laws.
In brief, Wisdom was the World-Soul for
cosmos, and the individual soul for man ;
and what specially interested the Gnostics,
what indeed is the special interest of ali
mystics, was that the myth of the one
was the myth of the other. To use
Sanskrit terms, she is Maha-buddhi, Great
Buddhi, the World-Soul or Divine Instinct,
and individual Buddhi in man. We will,
therefore, turn to the doctrines of the
Christianized Gnosis on this mystery.
5i
Wisdom (Hokmah in Hebrew, Sophia THE
in Greek, both feminine) dwelt with God ^nq^Jf*
before the Creation of the World, and wisdom.
sported continually before Him (Proverbs,
viii.). Wisdom is the Litd or Sport of
Deity, His Maya in Sanskrit, which does
not mean Illusion, but rather Creative
Power, from md, to measure.
In the " Syrian Gnosis," perhaps the
oldest form of the Christianized Gnosis,
to Wisdom is assigned both the conception
of the manifested worlds and the pro-
duction of its Seven Ruling Powers
(the Hebdomad). She herself was throned
above them all, in the Place of the Midst
(the Ogdoad), between the Spiritual World
proper, that is the Divine Mind (the Plerdma
or Fulness) and the Sensible World (the
Kenoma or Emptiness, or Hysterema or
Insufficiency). The same idea is seen in
Proverbs, ix. r (LXX.) :
"Wisdom hath built for herself a
House and underpropped it with Seven
Pillars."
55
™^ What these Seven may be we will
SONG OF " enquire later on. They are referred to in
WISDOM. " her Pillars beneath " of our Syriac
Ode (1. 8).
That there was already a fully developed
Gnosis among the Jewish Mystics when
the Proverbs-collection was compiled,
may be seen from the graphic description
(viii. 2, LXX.) :
" Wisdom is on the lofty Heights ; she
standeth in the Midst of the Paths ; ior
she sitteth by the Gates of the Mighty,
and singeth Hymns at the Entrances."
The Gnostics knew that this referred
to Sophia sitting in the Place of the Midst,
above the Seven Fate-spheres, in the
Eighth or Ogdoad, at the Gates of the
Mighty, that is the Entrances of the
Pleroma or Fulness, the Shekinah, to
which the Paths of Return lead.
She is thus the Mediatrix between the
Upj)er and the Lower, and brings forth the
mundane appearances after the spiritual
56
prototypes. She is thus called Mother,
and Mother of the Living. (All the
references may be obtained from Lipsius'
art. " Sophia," in Smith and Wace's
Did. of Christ. Biog.). She is also called
Light-Mother or Shining Mother, and
the Power Above, and from her all
spiritual souls draw their origin.
But how is it that the Divine Spouse,
in bringing the universe into manifesta-
tion, had herself apparently fallen from
the Perfection, and stood between it and
the Imperfection ? There were many
myths which speculated concerning this
mystery, but as it would take several
small volumes to set them forth in detail,
we must content ourselves with a few
brief indications only.
To quote from Lipsius {loc, cit.) :
THE
WEDDIIi
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" The fate of the ' Mother ' was re-
garded as the prototype of what is repeated
in the history of all individual souls,
which being of heavenly pneumatic [spir-
itual] origin, have fallen from the upper
57
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
JOM.
World of Light, their Home, and come
under the sway of evil powers, from whom
they must endure a long series of sufferings
in transmigration till a Return to the
Upper World be vouchsafed them. . .
" It was .... taught that the
souls of the Pnemnatici [Spiritual], having
lost the remembrance of their heavenly
derivation, required to become once more
partakers of Gnosis, or knowledge of their
own pneumatic essence [not intellectual
but spiritual knowledge therefore], in
order to make a Return to the Realm
of Light. In the impartation of this
Gnosis consists, according to the doctrine
common to all Gnostics, the Redemption
brought and vouchsafed by Christ to all
pneumatic souls. But the various for-
tunes of aU such souls were wont to be
contemplated in those of this mythical
personage Sophia, and so it was taught
that the Sophia also needed Redemption
wrought by Christ, by whom she is
delivered from her [spiritu^] ignorance
and her passions, and will at the end
58
of the World's devdopment [i* the
case of individual souls at the end of
tkeir development or evolution, that is
when perfected] be brought back to her
long-lost Home, the Upper Pleroma, into
which this Mother will find an entrance
along with all pneumatic souls, her
children [in the case of the individual
soul, her powers, that is the powers of her
past lives which are worthy of immor-
tality], and there, in the Heavenly Bridal
Chamber, celebrate the Marriage Feast of
Eternity."
THE
WEDDINO.
SONG OF
WISDOA
In the Gnostic systems mangled by
Irenseus, "the cosmogonies of Syrian
paganism have a preponderating influ*
ence,"
In one of these we are told of the
creation of man, whom the Sophia uses
as a means to deprive the Opposing Powers
of the Light they have stolen, " of the
perpetual conflict on his Mother's part
with the self-exalting efforts of the
Archontes [the Rulers or Opposing Powers,
59
WT^ntvr ^it^"'^^ whom, however, there would be
SONG OF ' ^° manifestation], and of her continuous
WISDOM, striving to recover again and again the
Light-spark [Atmic or Spiritual energy]
hidden in human nature, till, at length,
Christ [the Logos] comes to her assistance
and, in answer to her prayers, proceeds
to draw all the Sparks of Light to Himself,
unites himself with Sophia as the Bride-
groom with the Bride, descends on Jesus
[purified man] who has been prepared,
as a pure vessel for His reception, by
Sophia [Jesus as the purified sold is also
Sophia from another point of view], and
leaves him again before the crucifixion
[here meaning the death of the body],
ascending with Sophia into the JEon that
will never pass away,"
One of the names given to Wisdom
by the Gnostics was Prunicus (UpouviKo^)
which is generally rendered the Lustful
or Lewd, but which mystically refers to
" her attempts to entice away again
from the Cosmic Powers [the Powers
60
forth to procreation] the Seeds of Divine XS?
T ;„!,* » WEDDING-
^ig'^^- SONG OF
She IS called the Harlot, because she wisdom,
unites with the Light -sparks. Thus in
the Simonian legend, Helen (Sophia),
the consort of Simon {Shamash, the
Sun, the Christ), is fabled to have been
a harlot whom he picked up in a brothel
at Tyre, This betrays a Phoenician
background, and Tyre probably equates
with the Jerusalem Below, and Egypt,
the manifested world of physical nature.
The Sophia was further regarded as
the World-Womb, and the symbolism
worked out instructively for the mystic.
This is the Jagad-yoni of the Hindus.
All these theories are ancient, and cer-
tainly did not derive from the " Wisdom "
of the Old Testament ; it was rather the
latter that was accommodated to them.
We, therefore, agree with Lipsius when
he writes :
" It is obvious that all these cosmogonic
theories have their source or archetype
K 6i
THE
DDING-
iNG OF
WISDOM.
Hon
not in the Sophia of the Old Testament,
but in the Thalatth or Moledet of Syrian
paganism, the Life-Mother of whom
Berossus has so much to relate, or in
the World-Egg out of which when cloven
asunder Heaven and Earth and all things
proceed."
It is true that some very ancient
wisdom was at the back of it all, whether
originating with Thalatth or not, and
modem science entirely corroborates
this ancient wide-spread mysticism ;
indeed it is difficult to find a symbolism
that works out more naturally and satis-
factorily.
Another name for Sophia used by the
Greek-writing Gnostics was Achamoth,
the transliteration of the Aramaic Hach-
muth {= Hebrew Hokmah). Another
of her names, of which, however, the
derivation is very uncertain, is Earbelo,
or Barbero. In the Pistis Sophia {p, 361),
Barbelo is the Mother of the repentant
or returning Sophia, the human soul.
62
I
If in one of her aspects she was called
the Harlot, equally so was she called the
Virgin and Virgin of Light.
In the system of Bardaisan, Hachmuth
gives birth to two daughters, probably
typifying the twin soul of man, who are
poetically called " Shame of the Dry
Land " and ' ' Image of the Waters," earthy
and watery. We also hear of " the Maiden
who, having sunk down from the upper
Paradise, offers up prayers ... for
help from above, and being heard, returns
to the joys of the Upper Paradise."
As the Mother of the twin daughters,
Hachmuth is elsewhere called by Bar-
daisan the Holy Dove, that is the Divine
Mother Bird, who lays and hatches both
cosmic and human " Eggs." The two
poetical names given to the daughters
of Hachmiith, Wisdom (Buddhi), have
hitherto proved an insoluble puzzle. The
Mother, however, is always on the sub-
stance side of things, and therefore her
daughters, as all daughters must be, are
equally on the substance side. Now the
63
THH
WEDOmG-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" Image of the Waters," is also referred
to as the " type of the watery body."
The names may thus designate the cosmic
prototypes of what in the individual are
the subtle or watery vehicle, and the
gross or physical vehicle.
That this is not so wild a speculation
may be seen from the Hellenistic mystery-
poem known as the Chaldtgan Oracles^
consisting of Chaldsan (that is, Syrian)
stuff elaborately " philosophized." In
them (ii. 37, 81, 83), the physical body
is characterized as the "dung" (? =
" shame ") of gross matter (kyle). This
Hyle or Gross Matter is not regarded as
the Fruitful Substance of the Universe, the
" Land flowing with Milk and Honey "
(the Jerusalem Above, or Sophia, Mother
of all hving), but as the dry and squahd
element beneath the Moon, which) Proclus
tells us, is called in the Oracles, the
" Unwatered," that is, which is in itself
Unfruitful, the Desert as compared with
the Promised Land.
Equally so as to " Image of the Waters "
64
we have information (ii, 57 f.)- For wel 7,5-^_.„„
reaa : song of
WISDOM.
" Extend on every side the reins of
Fire [Mind] to guide the iraformed soul."
That is to say, constrain the flowing
watery nature of the soul by means of
the Fire of the Spirit ; and this seems
also to be the meaning of the difl&cult
fragment :
" If thou extendest Fiery Mind to
flowing work of piety, thou shalt preserve
thy body too."
This seems to mean that, when by
means of purification the soul is made
fluid — that is to say, is no longer bound
to any configuration of external things,
when it is freed from prejudice, or opinion,
and personal passion and sentiment, and
is " with pure purities now purified," as
the Mitktiac Ritual (p. 20) has it — then
is this regenerated soul and plasm, the
65
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
germ of the " perfect body," ready for
' union with the true Mind of the Father.
Speaking of the Acts of Thomas, Lipsius
writes, after mentioning The Hymn of
the Soul :
" Of the other hymns which are pre-
served in the Greek version more faith-
fully than in the Ssoiac text which has
undergone Cathohc revision, the first
deserving of notice is the Ode to the Sophia,
which describes the marriage of the
' Maiden ' with her Heavenly Bridegroom
and her introduction into the Upper
Realm of Light. This ' Maiden,' called
* Daughter of Light,' is not, £is the Cathohc
reviser supposes, the Church, but Hach-
muth (Sophia), over whose head the
' King,' i.e. the Father of the Living Ones
[Light-sparks] sits enthroned ; her Bride-
groom is, according to the most probable
interpretation, the Son of the Living One,
i.e. Christ. With her the Living Ones,
I.e. pneumatic souls, enter into the
66
Pleroma, and receive the glorious Light the
of the Living Father, and praise along ^qhq of
with the ' Living Spirit,' the ' Father of wisdom.
Truth ' and the ' Mother of Wisdom.' "
Much more could be written on tliis
fascinating subject, but enough has now
been given for our immediate purpose.
THE SACRED MARRIAGE IN
CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM.
Sufficient has already been said to show
that among the Christian Gnostics the
mystery of the Sacred Marriage or Mystic
Union formed the chiefest of their inner-
most sacraments. It would be too long
to pursue the subject in detail and bring
together all the passages from the " Frag-
ments of a Forgotten Faith" — which we
are pleased to see Preuschen (p, 7) refers
to as " Denkmiler eines verschoUenen Glau-
bens " (the title of the German translation
of Fragments being Fragmenie eines
verschoUenen Glaubens, Berlin, igo2) — ^but
67
wMDiHG^ two of the most striking may be set down.
SONG OF The first has already been referred to in
JSDOM. the above quotations from Lipsius, but
it is worth while to give a full translation
from the Old Latin version of Irenseus*
lost Greek (I, xxx. 12). Irenseus ascribes
the doctrine to those whom he calls
Ophites, but who called themselves simply
GnosticSj and whom Theodoret calls
Sethians. This important passage comes
at the end of the Church Father's ex-
position of what in its cosmogony is
evidently a pre-Christian system — pro-
bably an ancient and very generally held
belief outside Jewry, the main outlines
of which have already been given in the
comments on The Hymn of the Robe of
Glory, under the heading " The Dual
Sonship " (pp. 40 ff.). It runs as follovra ;
"And since she herself [Wisdom Below
or in manifestation] had no rest either
in heaven or on earth, in her distress she
invoked the Mother [Wisdom Above] to
her aid. Accordingly her Mother, the
First Woman, had pity on the repentance
68
oi her Daughter, and asked the First 3f^.-,™.
Man [the Father] that Christ [the Son] so«G OF
should be sent to help her. wisdom.
"So He emanated and descended to
His own Sister, the Moistening of Light,"
That is, to the Light that had become
watery or descended into the Watery
Realms of Generation.
" And she, the Downward Sophia [that
is the Wisdom tending downwards to
matter], becoming conscious that her
Brother was descending to her, both
proclaimed His Coming through John,
and made ready the Baptism of re-
pentance, and adopted Jesus beforehand
[that is, chose him as her Son] ; so that
the Christ descending might find a pure
vessel. [The present reading of the rest
of the sentence is hopeless.]
" He descended through the Seven
Heavens, making Himself hke to their
Sons [that is, taking on the forms of
their Rulers], and stage by stage emptied
them of their Power [that is, the Light-
sparks or Pneumatic souls that they had
6g
wF?>niwr ™prisoned] ; for the whole Moistening
SONG OF ' of Light ran-together to Him.
WISDOM. " And the Christ descending into this
World [of gross matter] first clothed
Himself with His own Sister Sophia, and
both were in bliss in mutual refreshment,
the one with the other ; this is the Bride-
groom and the Bride.
" Now Jesus being [re-] generated from
the Virgin by the energizing of God, was
wiser and purer and more righteous than
all men ; [so] the Christ-blended-with-
Sophia [two-in-one, male-female] de-
scended on him, and he became Jesus-
Christ."
To this we may append the following
section {§13} to give the reader some
idea of one of the great Gnostic traditions
concerning Jesus. Irenseus continues :
" They say that many of his Disciples
were not conscious of the Descent of the
Christ upon him ; it was only when the
Christ descended upon Jesus that he
70
began to manifest powers and heal and
announce the [hitherto] unknown Father gQNG of
and confess openly that he was Son of WISDOM,
the First Man.
" At these things the Rulers and the
Father of Jesus [that is, the Father of
his body, the Demiiurge or Former of the
physical world, which they equated with
the Jewish idea of God] grew angry and
set to work to have him killed. The
moment this was brought about the
Christ - together-with - Wisdom departed
into the Incorruptible ^on [Eternity],
while it was the Jesus who suffered the
death of crucifixion.
" Yet the Christ did not forget his
[Beloved], but sent down from above a
certain Power unto him, which raised
him up in the body, in that body which
they call both vital and spiritual ; for
he sent the mundane elements [of his
physical body] back again into the world.
" The Disciples, however, though they
saw he had risen did not know him [after
death], nay, [they did not really know]
71
THE
WEDDING--
SONG OF
WISDOM.
even Jesus himself [in life], whose Grace
[that is, the ' certain Power '] rose from
the dead. They say that this very great
error prevailed among the Disciples, that
they believed he had risen in a mundane
body."
All previous translations have missed
the meaning of Gratia (Grace) in the last
sentence but one, taking *' cujus gratia "
to mean " for whose sake " or " through
whom." It is sufficient to refer the reader
to The Hymn of Jesus (pp. 29, 32, 49, 52,
62, 64), to show that the lost Greek
original of Irenaeus must have read Charts,
one of the syonjrms of Sophia in one of
her aspects. That which rose from the
" dead " was the Power or incorruptible
" Body " of Light, the " Perfect Body,"
or " Robe of Glory "—or of " Power,"
Our Ode sets forth the perfections of
the Bride adorned for the Bridegroom ;
but the mystery could be set forth from
the complementary point of view as we
72
have already {p. 42) seen from Philo ^JSjiv™/^
of Alexandria. In the Naassene Docu- song of
ment, which so strikingly reveals to us WISDO*
the main moments in the evolution of
one line of " Ophite " Gnostic tradition —
(see H. i. pp. 139-198, " The Myth of
Man in the Mysteries ") — the early Hel-
lenistic writer tell us :
" And the law is that after they have
been initiated into the Little Mysteries
[those of Generation], they should be
further initiated into the Great [those of
Regeneration]."
After describing the nature of the Lesser
Mysteries, he adds :
" These are the Little Mysteries,
and after men have been initiated into
them, they should cease for a little, and
become initiated in the Great."
Whereupon the early Jewish Gnostic
comments :
73
THE
WEDDING.
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" For this Mystery is the Gate of
Heaven, and this is the House of God,
where the Good God dwells alone ; into
which House no impure man shall come —
but it is kept under watch for the Spiritual
alone ; — ^where, when they come, they
must cast away their garments, and all
become Bridegrooms, obtaining their true
Manhood through the Virginal Spirit."
(H. i. 180, 181.)
The Virginal Spirit is the Great Mother,
the Sophia Above. This reminds us
strongly of the primitive-culture initiatory
rite of " young-man-making "as it is
called ; but that belongs to the most
grossly realistic form of the Lesser
Mysteries. What a marvellous trans-
formation is wrought in passing from the
Below to the Above, into the Greater
Mysteries, which the later Christian
Gnostic commentator rightly characterizes
as Heavenly !
The Rite of the Sacred Marriage must
have been dramatically set forth in some
74
of the inner rituals of the Christianized JJ^Qjjjp
Gnosis. At any rate we definitely know song of
that this was the case among the Mar- WISDC
cosians, ior IreniEus (I. xxi. 3), tells us :
" Some of them prepare a Bridal
Chamber and celebrate a mystery-rite
with certain invocations on those who
are being perfected ; and they declare
that what is being solemnized by them
is a Sacred Marriage, in likeness with the
Unions Above,"
It has already been pointed out, in
treating of that marvellously interesting
early Christian Gnostic Ritual of Initiation
known as The Hymn of Jesus, (p. 50),
that " the ultimate end of the Gnosis was
the at-one-ment or union of the little man
with the Great Man, of the human soul
with the Divine Soul " ; indeed, one of
the chief keys to the interpretation of
some of the most striking formulae of this
Ritual is that of the Sacred Marriage.
It will not be out of place here to repeat
75
E
<i
THH
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
one or two of these sentences. The
neoph5^e impersonates the purified human
soul or Sophia, and the Initiator or
Master is the Christ.
I would be wounded.
Or " I would be pierced." This sug-
gests the entrance of the Ray, the Higher
Self, into the Heart, whereby the " Knot
in the Heart," eis the Upanishads phrase
it, niay be unloosed, or dissolved, or in
order that the purified Lower Self may
receive the Divine Radiance of the Higher.
This interpretation is borne out by the
alternative reading from an old Latin
translation, which may have originated
in a gloss by one who knew the mystery,
for he writes : " I would be dissolved " ;
that is, " consumed by love,"
And so we continue with the mysteries
of this truly Sacred Marriage or Spiritual
Union.
I would be begotten."
76
This is the Mystery of the Immaculate J^^qju«-
Conception or Seli-birth (pp, 57, 58).
SONG OF
WISDOM.
" I would be adorned.'
The original Greek term suggests the
idea of " rightly ordered " {kosmein}. It
may also mean " clothed in fit garments" ;
that is, the soul prays that her little
cosmos which has been previously out of
order may be made like unto the Great
Order, and so she may be clad in " Glories"
or " Robes of Glory," or " Power," like
unto the Great Glories of the Heavenly
Spheres.
" I would be at-oned."
We now approach the Mystery of Union,
when the soul abandons with joy its
separateness, and frees itself from the
limitations of its " possessions "—of that
which is " mine " as apart from the rest
(pp. 69, 70).
Enough has now been given to assure
77
vmiDINC- ^^"^ reader that the Sacred Marriage was
SONG OF * fundamental mystery with the Christian
WISDOM. Gnostics. We may next turn to the
Trism^istic Gnosis,
IN THE TRISMEGISTIC GNOSIS.
Thus in the Sacred Sermon called
" The Key," we read (§22) :
" Further there is an intercourse, or
communion (koinoia), of souls ; those
of the gods have intercourse with those
of men, and those of men with souls of
creatures which possess no reason.
" The higher, further, have in charge
the lower ; the gods look after men, men
after animals irrational, while God hath
charge of all ; for He is liigher than them
all and all are less than He." {H. ii.
155. 173)
Again in the Discourse called " The
Secret Sermon on the Mountain," we
read (§§i,2) :
78
I
" Tai. Wherefore I got me ready, ^^nrMr
and made the thought in me a stranger SONC^F
to the world-illusion. wisiooM.
" And now do thou fill up [suggesting
the Pleroma] the things that fall short
[suggesting the Hysterema or Kenoma
{<?/• P- 55)] i^ nie with what thou saidst
would give one the tradition of Re-birth
[or Regeneration], setting it forth in
speech or as the secret way.
" I know not, O Thrice-greatest one,
from out what matter and what womb
Man [the Spiritual Man] comes to birth,
or of what seed.
" Hermes. Wisdom that understands
in Silence [such is the Matter and the
Womb from out which Man is bom], and
the True Good the Seed.
" Tat. Who is the sower, father ? For
I am altogether at a loss.
" Her. It is the Will of God, my son.
" Tat. And of what kind is he who is
begotten, father ? For I have no share
of that essence in me that doth transcend
79
wS>DiNG *^^ senses. The one that is begot will
SONG OF be another one from God, God's Son ?
WISDOM. "Hey^ All in aU, out of aU Powers
composed. [Cf. the Christ as the Common
Fruit of the Pleroma.]
" Tat. Thou tellest me a riddle,
father, and dost not speak as father
unto son.
"Her. This Race, my son, is never
taught ; but when He wiUeth it, its
memory is restored by God." (H. ii.
220, 221, 240 f.)
This is the Mystery of the Virgin Birth.
m THE CHALDiEAN ORACLES.
This Mystic Union was also the supreme
mystery of the Hellenized Mago-Chal-
dseanism to which the first century
mystery-poem known as the ChaldcBan
Oracles belonged, as we have shown in
two of these Uttle volumes. Thus speak-
ing of the fragment which set forth " The
End of Understanding " we wrote :
80
" The whole instruction might be
termed a method of yoga or mystic union
{unto mysiica) of the spiritual or kingly
mind, the mind that rules itself — Raja-
yoga, the Royal Art proper " (i. 27 f.),
And again (ii. 65) : " Thus Proclus
speaks of the soul, ' according to a certain
ineffable At-one-ment, leading that-which-
is-hlled [or the Kenoma] into sameness
with that-which-iills [or the Pleroma],
making one portion of itself, in an im-
material and impalpable fashion, a re-
ceptacle for the In-shining, and provoking
the other to the Imparting of its Light.'
This, he says, is the meaning of the verse :
" ' When the currents mingle in con-
summation of the Works of Deathless
Fire.' "
THE
WEDOr
SONG OF
WISDOM.
Indeed the Pagan Mystics interpreted
the Loves of the Gods in the only way
it was possible to do so, namely, as Sacred
Marriages, the Unions Above of the
Marcosians (see p, 75 above). Thus
81
V^)DING. P''***^^^^' '° ^^ Commentary on Plato's
SONG OP Parnwnides (ii. 214 ; StaUbaum — Leipzig,
WISDOM. 1841— p. 602), writes :
" The Theologers riddle these [Divine
operations} by means of the Sacred
Marriages ; for without exception they
call the hke-natured combination and
communion of the Divine Causes ' Mar-
riage ' in a mystic sense. Sometimes
they see it in the co-ordinate [elements]
and call it the Marriage of Hera and Zeus,
of Ouranos (Heaven) and Ge (Earth), of
Kronos and Rhea ; sometimes in the
inferior (or deficient) with the superior,
and call it the Marriage of Zeus and
Demeter ; and again sometimes in the
superior with the lower, and call it the
Marriage of Zeus and Kore ; since
of the Gods some are commimions with
the co-ordinate [elements], others with
those prior to these, and again others
with those subsequent to them ; and it is
necessary to have a thorough under-
standing of the special character of each
82
[such union] and transfer such inter- XS5.„,«,-.
twining from the Gods [or Wholes or sONG OF
Genera] to the species [individuals or WIS
partial existences]."
The elements were considered as co-
ordinates (o-wTToixa), that is, standing
in the same row or order, or opposite
(tWt(rToix«). that is, standing in opposite
order or facing one another. Thus Air
and Fire, Water and Earth, were regarded
as co-ordinates, while Water and Fire,
and Air and Earth, were considered
opposites.
Indeed, we hear of a book entitled
Wh^ is Male and Female with the Gods,
and whai Marriage, by Hipparchns the
Stagjrite (Lobeck, Aglaophamus — K6nigs-
berg, 1829 — p. 608).
Many passages could be cited (Lobeck,
ibid., pp. 648 ff), but we may be content
with two only.
Dio Chrysostom (xxxvi. 453), speaking
of certain most sacred rites, says that :
83
THE " The Sons of the Sages in the Perfect-
SONG OF*'" ^S Rites that must not be disclosed, sing
WISDOM, of the Blessed Marriage of Hera and
Zeus."
And Proclus again, in his Commentary
on Plato's Timmus (i. i6), writes :
" That the same [Goddess] has union
with different [Gods], and the same [God]
with more [Goddesses], you may learn
from the Mystic Discourses and what
are called in the Mysteries the Sacred
Marriages."
IN THE MITHRIAC MYSTERIES. \,
In the mystery-traditions the stages
of inner development which the human
soul passes through in its transmutation
from mortality to immortality, from man
to God, were set forth as births {and
deaths also, and risings from the dead),
and marriages. It is, moreover, not
difficult for the experienced mjratic to
84
assure himself by the knowledge of his J^
own " passion " that there must be
marriage or union before birth. There-
fore, though in deahng with the highly
instructive Ritual which preserves for us
perhaps the innermost rite or m3rstic
sacrament of the Mithriaca {A Miikriac
Rihtal, Vol. VI.), we treated it as a whole
from the standpoint of Rebirth or Re-
generation, there is in each stage imphcitly
a union before the birth of new conscious-
ness. This is implicit and not declared
in this particular Ritual ; the consum-
mation, however, is declared. The Com-
ing of the God is the descent of his
Higher Self into the man and the taking
up of the man into Him. The Higher
and the Lower Self are at length united.
And so the last invocation prays :
" Oh Lord of me, abide with me within
my Soul ! Oh ! leave me not ! "
WEDDIKG
SONG OF
WISDOM.
Then comes the end
Cross, the bitter cry :
83
even as on the
" My God, my
u^miHc ^^' *^y ^^* Thou forsaken me ? " —
SONG OF"" ^^^ then. Death . . . and Triumph,
'ti
SDOM. Joy and Rebirth.
" O Lord, being bom again (or from
Above), I pass away in-being-made-Great,
and, having-been-made-Great, I die.
" Being bom from out the state of
birth-and-death[Gk. Genesis, Sk, Samsdra'},
that giveth birth to mortal lives, I now,
set free, pass to the state transcending
birth, as Thou hast stabUshed it, according
as Thou hast ordained and made the
Mystery" (p. 33).
This is achieved after the " Doors "
of the Heavens are thrown open for the
third time, Doors within and within, to
the without and without, three stages
of extended consciousness, or deeper
realization.
Now it is to be remarked that just as
in our Ode the Bride stands waiting for
the Coming of the Bridegroom surrounded
by Seven Bridesmaids and Seven Brides-
86
men, so in the Mithriac Ritual the rubric Sinnrtir
declares that the symbolic vision pre- song of
ceding the Coming of the God shall be WISDOJ
characterized as follows :
" Thou shalt behold the Doors thrown
open, and issuing from the Depth, Seven
Virgins These are they who
are the so-called Heaven's Fortunes. . .
" There come forth others, too — Seven
Gods. . . . These are the so-called
Heaven's Pole-lords" (pp. 29, 30.}
It is enough to say that, mystically,
the Ritual suggests the bringing into
activity of seven twin-powers or sense-
faculties in the new-born Perfect or
jEonic Body, the Body of Wholeness, in
which every sense is of the nature of
wholeness, that is, this Body becomes
all ear when it hears, all eye when it
sees, and so forth.
But why Seven ? The reader will of
course reply : Because of the Seven
Planets.
87
HE THE SEVEN.
ONG OP " ^"^ both mysticism and the most recent
VISDOM. scholarship forbid this facile answer.
The so-called Planets, the Five and the
Sun and Moon, were at a comparatively
late date accommodated to the Seven,
and were not its origin. The instructive
treatise of Dr. Johannes Hehn, Siebenzahl
und Sabbat bet den Babyloniern und
im Alien Testameni : Eine religionsge-
schichtliche Siudie, in the Leipziger semi-
iische Studien, Bd. ii., Hft. v. (Leipzig,
1907), leaves no doubt on the subject.
VII,, when translated by the Baby-
lonians from the Sumerian, appears as :
whole, totality, all=universum (pp. 4,
6, 52). This is Hehn's main contention,
and he proves it in many ways. On
p. 14 there is a hint that it means the
Seven Directions [? of Space], but this
suggestion he does not follow up. We
will take up this point later on, for we
know that Dik (in Sanskrit), the Directions
of Space, is one of the chief categories
of Indian philosophy.
8S
VII., he says, is the expression ol the SJE,,,™-
highest Elevation, or Climax (compare song of
the Stairway of the Neck of Wisdom in WISDOM.
our Ode), of the highest Completion or
Fulness {that is, Pleroma) and Power
Quoting from a text (p. 19), which
speaks of " the Seven Limbs of the
Father-house," he says, these naturally
mean " aU the Limbs " or Members.
Compare this with the Pillars of our
Ode, and the Pillars of the House of
Wisdom in Proverbs.
Excellently, too, does he point out
(p. 20), that in the Babylonian religion,
" Nature, according to this view of the
world, is not ruled over by dead Laws,
but it is the out-working of living Per-
sonalities " — that is. Living Powers or
Intelligences.
The VIL, then, regarded as a Divine
Power, " is not a Group of Gods, but is
equivaient to the All-Godhead, and thus
implies a comprehension of the whole
pantheon " (p. 20),
89
THESty
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
Moreover, it is of interest to remark
that 2x7 often occurs, as in the phrase
" the Seven Gods, the Twin-Gods," who
are the Great Gods of Heaven and Earth
{pp. 20, 23).
Also again in the invocations, both in
high magic and in sorcery, the Twice-
Seven occur : " Seven are they, Sev-en
are they, Twice-Seven are they ! " (pp. 38,
30, 34)'
But what is the orig^in of this " sacred "
number ? The old theory of the planets,
which has done service, without explaining
anj'thing, for so many centuries, must be
abandoned, as Zimmem, Roscher, Schiar-
parelli and Wellhausen, among others,
have pointed out in different lines of
research (p. 44).
One thing is certain that the sacred
character of the VII, goes back to very
ancient times, to demonstrably pre-Baby-
lonian days, for it is found as a common-
place in Sumerian culture (p. 46).
Moreover in Babylonian Uterature there
are frequent groupings of stars (not
90
planets), according to the principle of the
hebdomad (p. 47).
Hehn, therefore, boldly declares that
the cult of the planets was not old Baby-
lonian, and reached its full development
only in the Alexandrian period (p. 50),
It is true that the Planet-Gods were
regarded in later Babylonian times as
Patrons of the days of the week, but so
also were other groups of Star-Gods, and
the Planets were never specialized for
this purpose. There was something more
at the back of it aU. What was it ?
Hehn adopts Roscher's theory (p. 50),
that the Seven has its origin in the quar-
tering of the days of the month.
Just as the Sun-number was 6 or 60,
factors of the 360 days of the year, not
counting the odd days, so was the Moon-
number 7, a fourth of 28, the i^ days,
to make the proper total 29I, not counting.
They dealt only with round numbers.
The Moon was for the Babylonians the
great time-measurer, the root of their
calendar.
91
THE _
WEDDING
SONG OF
WISDOM.
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
WISDOM.
With this conclusion I would, with
all due deference, venture to disagree.
In this way a seven was found in natural
phenomena, but was it the origin of the
VII. If VII. was the Perfect Number in
very ancient ciilture, as I think Hehn
has proved, and as we shall see it can be
shown along many other lines of research,
then it is far more probable, in my opinion,
that there was once a numbering by
sevens, a system of notation where seven
was the radix, just as we have in Baby-
lon itself a duodecimal as well as a decimal
system. But what lay at the back of
this ? Why was it that VII. completed
the series ; six, then seven, and then
begin again ?
Is it so wild a partial hypothesis {for
I beUeve still far more was at the back
of it), that VII. completed or perfected
the physical or visible, that is, brought
it into manifestation, that there must
be 6 before there was any appearance
here ; that there must be the 6 directions
complete, before anything could be seen ;
92
I
take away one, and our space is not. JJ^H-mMp
A three-dimensional thing that has no top, sqng of
or bottom, etc. , is unthinkable in our space. WISDOM.
As to " directions," therefore, there
must be first a Within and a Without,
and either of these must be measured by
3 dimensions, 3 pairs, making 6 directions
in all (up, down, right, left, front, back),
plus a monad or unity of the 3 or 6.
Further, there was a 7 Within and a 7
Without, making in all 7 Twins, male
and female, positive and negative, etc.
True we have not yet got at the root of
the matter, but it is not so difficult to
see that here we have a i (monad), a
2 (dyad, twins), and a 3 (triad) ; and
again the permutations and combinations
of 3 things taken i at a time, 2 at a time,
and 3 at a time, or all together, are 7, —
e.g., a, b, c ; ab, ac, be • abc — according
to the formula, 2"-i.
How enormously wide-spread was this
category of VII , may be seen by turning
to the index of Gerald Massey's two
massive volumes, A ncieni Egypt : The
93
WMDrac ^*^^ °f *^ World (London, 1907), where
SONG OF ^^^ references to " seven " occupy two
WISDOM, columns. The germ of his theory (p. 25)
is that :
'* The Ancient Genetrix [the World-
Mother] was the Mother who brought
forth Seven Children at a birth, or as a
companionship, according to the category
of phenomena. Her Seven Children were
the Nature-Powers of all mythology.
They are visibly represented under divers
types because the Powers were reborn
in different phenomena."
This theory he develops with endless
illustrations, it is the vital side and
complement of the directions-hypothesis
that I have indicated ; it is the feminine
completion of the masculine directions —
the Virgins and the Pole-lords of the
Mithriac Ritual.
THE CHOIR OF THE >EONS.
But indeed every God, or Divine Power,
in the Babylonian religion had a special
94
number, and the Number was the God ; ISH^„,y-
and there is little doubt that Pythagoras song OF '
derived his mathesis in the first place WISDOM.
from initiation into the Babylonian mys-
teries.
The Gods were jEons, or Eternities,
and it is interesting to remark that one
of the names for a God in t he Babylonian
language is Igig ; this is probably the
origin of the term lynx (Gk. lygx, pi.
lygges) which was discussed at length
in The Chaldtsan Oracles {ii. 9,ff.)-
The whole of the Christian Gnostic
aeonology is based on such Numbers, as
may be seen from the study " Some
Outlines of ^onology," in Fragments
(2nd. ed., pp. 311 Hi.). But we have
already over-run our space, and cannot
treat of the 10 and iz, and total, 32 or 33,
of the whole Pleroma or Dynamic Pan-
theon, the Modes of the Divine Mind, and
Powers of the Divine Soul. The rest
of our space must be given to a few
necessary Notes.
93
NOTES.
The Radiance, Splendour or Resplend-
ence (Syr. Z7wa, Gk. apaugasma), is the
Avestan kvareno, or Presence. (Cf. A
Mithriac Riiual, p. 24.). It is the Light
of the Kings, the Royal Pair, God and the
Spirit, or the Sophia Above.
She, the Sophia Below, or* in manifes-
tation, is now pure Nature decked with
spring flowers, Buddhi, the Ground of
Enlightenment, or Spiritual Soul.
The " sweet-odour " is the " sweet
savour " of the Holy Spirit, as Basihdes
calls it {F. p. 264).
The King is Atman, the Highest Self ;
His Home is the Highest Heights, and
He pours forth His Power into all the
96
Members of the Pure or Perfected Body. ^^j^,-,.
The Pillars are the totality of the Limbs, sqjjq Qp
and not the vertebral column only (Hoff- wisdom.
mami).
_ The Divine Ichor from the Cup of
Atman (or Chrism) pours throughout
her whole economy, and out at her feet,
into the outer world.
The Two-and-thirty are a puzzle. Thilo
suggested that they stand for the teeth.
This may be so, for in the Naassene
Document, the Jewish mystic comment-
ing on the term " Rock " in a verse of
Homer, writes :
" The ' Rock ' means Adamas. This
is the ' Corner-stone ' which ' I insert in
the foundation of Zion.'
" By this he (Isaiah) means, allegori-
cally, the plasm of man. For the Adamas
who is ' inserted ' is the [inner man, and
the ' foundations of Zion ' are] the ' teeth '
— the ' fence of teeth,' as Homer says —
97
12
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
.WISDOM.
the Wall and Palisade in which is the
inner man, fallen into it from the Primal
Man the Adamas Above, or [the Stone]
'cut without hands' cutting it, and
brought down into the plasm of forget-
fuhiess, the earthy, clayey [plasm]."
{H. i. 162).
This shows that the '* teeth " were
regarded as symbols of the Pahsade, a
term used of the Limit of the ^on-
World in Gnostic tradition. For this sym-
bohsm, however, the number 30 (which
is found as a variant reading), would
perhaps be more appropriate, for the
Emanation of the limit that shut off
the jEonic Inmiensities from the im-
perfect manifested world, in one of the
most famous variants of the Sophia-
mythus known to us, comes as a 31st,
after the completion of 30 (F. pp. 342 If.).
15 Perhaps instead of *' those {-roti)
who enter " we should rather read
"priests (kpok) who enter."
98
The Head represents the Holy City, 17
the Jerusalem Above, and also the Temple,
or Shrine of the God, that was on top of
the " Stairway " in the ancient Baby*
Ionian truncated pyramids (the Mexican
teocallis). They were pjn-araid-like
buildings of six stages, of diminishing
area, on the top of which was the shrine of
the God. Here again we have our 6 and
the monad ruling them.
The jEons were aU paired, male-female 19
in one, wholenesses ; they were some-
times figured as set over against one
another in rows, like the choirs or choruses
of men and women singers and dancers in
the Therapeut communities (F. pp. 80 f.).
But in reality they were all Wliolenesses,
Two-in-one, called by twin names, such
as Mind-and-Truth, Word-and-Life, Man-
and-Church ; they were self-complemen-
tary and self-sufficient. The manifested
worlds of separation and opposition arose,
according to one of the most striking
Wisdom-myths (F. pp. 335 ff.), through
99
, Wisdom, the last of the iEons, separating
WG OF "herself from her Divine Complement,
ISDOM. and so falling into the realm of the
opposites.
21 The Decad of Fingers are the twice
Five Great Limbs. Thus in yet another
Hymn to Wisdom, in The Acts of Thomas,
we read :
" Thou Mother of Compassion, come ;
come Spouse of Him, the Man ; come
Thou Revealer of the Mj^teries concealed ;
Thou Mother of the Seven Mansions
come, who in the Eighth hath found Thy
Rest !
" Come Thou who art the Messenger
of the Five Holy Limbs — Mind,
Thought, Reflection, Thinking, Reasoning ;
commune with those of later birth ! "
83 The City and the Bride-chamber are
the same — ^the most secret place.
In the PisHs Sophia the City is a
synonym of the Inheritance, it is in the
100
Midst of the highest Pleroma {P.S. pp. THE
52, 198), to it leads the Gate of Life ^g'^of^
{p. 292). WISDOM.
From it, the Supernal Mouth, was born _
the Word of Prophecy, when the Secret
Place was regarded as the within of the
Head ; and it must be remembered that
the Gods were all regarded as Heads,
Spheres, as for instance among the
Trismegistic Mjfstics.
See the Sacred Sermon called " The
Key " {§11} ;
*' Since Cosmos is a sphere — ^that is
to say, a head. . . .
" And head itself moved in a sphere-
like way — that is to say, as head should
move — is mind " {H. ii. 148).
The following Marcosian Ritual of the
Sacrament of the Illumination of Prophecy
(Iren. I. xiii. 3) is highly instructive in
this connection. The Christ as Master
addresses the Disciple ;
101
THE
WEODING-
JONG OF
" I would have thee share in My Grace
[Glory, Power], since the Father of Wholes
seeth thy Angel continually before His
Face [that is, in His Presence].
" Now the Place of thy Greatness [that
is Angel] is in Us. We must be at-oned.
" First receive from Me and through
Me My Grace.
" Make thyself ready as a Bride re-
ceiving her Bridegroom, in order that
thou mayest be what I am, and I what
thou art,
" Dedicate in thy Bridal Chamber the
Seed of Light.
" Take from Me thy Bridegroom, and
make way for Him, and be made way
for in Him.
" Lo ! Grace hath descended upon
thee !
" Open thy mouth and prophesy ! "
37 The individual consummation of at-one-
ment was of the same nature as the final
consummation of the whole scheme of
103
I
salvation. Concerning this we may again JJinnrNr
tnrn to Irenaeus {I. vii. i), who sums song OF
up the Valentinian doctrine on this point WISDOM. ,
as follows :
" Now when the whole [Spiritual] Seed
[the Sons of God] has been perfected, they
say that Achamoth [Hachmuth, Sophia],
their Mother, passes from the Place of the
Midst and enters within the Pleroma,
and receives the Saviour as her Bride-
groom, Him who is the Forthbringing of
all [the lEons, viz., the Common Fruit Of
the Pleroma], so that there is Union of the
Saviour and Sophia, who is Achamoth.
" And this is the Bridegroom and Bride,
while the Bride-chamber is the whole
Pleroma.
" The Spiritual [Pneumatici, that is the
Redeemed or Regenerate], moreover,
stripping off their [animal or irrational]
souls [cj. the 'stripping off of the gar-
ments ' of the Naassene Document (p. 74
above)], and becoming gnostic spirits [or
103
THE
WEDDING-
SONG OF
ISDOM.
intelligences], entering the Pleroraa, with-
out the Opposing Powers being able to
detain or see them, are restored back
again as Brides to the Angels who sur-
round the Saviour."
And again (ibid. 5) :
" The Spirit aal [Seeds] after they have
been deemed worthy of perfection are
restored as Brides to the Angels of the
Saviour ... to enjoy bliss for ever."
40 The " Great Ones " {fieynrroMei) might
perhaps be translated " Grandees," or
" Satraps."
45 It is not quite clear what " both "
refers to, unless to the company [Eg.
pai4t] of the Bride, both male and female.
49 " Waste " mystically stands for
" deficiency." Their food will henceforth
be " Ambrosia," the "Food of Immortal-
ity," the Heavenly Manna, the Substance
104
of the Pleroma, or Fulness, as set over ^^_ ^
against the food of earth, the dehghts of song op"
the world, the deficiency. But the wisdom
Gnostics were also ascetics and yogins, and
knew of the mysteries of the body. Thus
the Valentinians taught that the "free
utterance," or perfect expression, of the
Alone Good can only be manifested by
the man made perfect. Such an one was
Jesus. And so we find VaJentinus writ-
ing to Agathopus {Clem. Alex. Strom,
III. vii. 59) :
" It was by his unremitting self-denial
in all things that Jesus digested divinity ;
he ate and drank in a peculiar manner
without any waste. The power of con-
tinence was so great in him, that his food
did not decay in him, for he himself was
without decay " (F. p. 302).
The " power " referred to by Valen-
tinus is one of the siddhis (powers)
mentioned in every treatise on yoga
ros
HE (mj^tic union) in India, and in the Up-
DNG OF " aniahads we read that " very little
)0M. waste " is one of the first signs of " suc-
cess " in katha-yoga, the physical dis-
cipline of the art.
As to the Living Food — in reference
to the Miracle of the Loaves, the writer
of the Fourth Gospel puts the following
/o|os into the mouth of the Master
{Jok. vi. 27) :
" Digest not the food that perisheth,
but the food that abideth unto seonian
life, which the Son of the Man shall give
unto you, for on this hath the Father set
His seal."
51 Burkitt, in his review of Preuschen,
translates this line :
" Which is longed for and thirsted for
by them who drink it."
We have already overstepped our space,
106
and so must conclude with the hope that ™E
what has been written may help some of SWG OF
our readers towards a better xmderstand- WISDOM,
ing of the " great " Mystery of the Sacred
Marriage, and therewith to a more vital
interpretation of " The Wedding-Song
of Wisdom."
107
ntlHTBD BT
rSRCY LUHD, HUWPHUBS AMD CO., LTD.
THE CODMTKT FRISS, BSADroKO ;
AND
3, AMBH COKMEK, LONDON, B.C.
(18018)
/
c
BT 1390 .M45 t906 V 11 CI
Tti« wedding-song of wisdofn /
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I
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